The Main Street Free Press Museum in Fredericktown, Ohio, was founded in 2000 by Rarick W. Long, publisher of the villageís weekly newspaper for 35 years, and by his sons and daughter, John C. Long of New York City, Harlan B. Long of Martinsville, Indiana, and Rebecca Long Leakey of Lake Milton, Ohio. The three siblings grew up working in their fatherís newspaper and print shop, which became the Museum. John Long, who directs the Museumís development, was for more than 10 years, before his retirement, a copy editor at The Wall Street Journal and for 30 years a reporter, editor and executive at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, and before that, a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch and an editor with his father. He now teaches journalism at St. Johnís and Hofstra universities in and near New York City and is president of New Yorkís Deadline Club Foundation, which raises money to fund journalism scholarships.

A year or two before his death in 2001, Rarick Long began expressing his desire that the historic building and his letterpress printing equipment, much of it more than a century old, be preserved for the benefit of the public. With the help of volunteers from the Fredericktown community, the Long family transformed the former Knox County Citizen office and print shop into The Main Street Free Press Museum, which was dedicated in September 2000. Rarick Long, who was then in ill health and living with his daughter and her family in Pennsylvania, made his last visit to Fredericktown for the dedication ó to him and his late wife, Dorothy ó which was attended by many of his former employees dating back to the 1940s.

Co-Founder Rarick W. Long was on hand for the dedication of The Main Street Free Press Museum, Sept. 9, 2000.

The Museumís mission is fourfold:

∑To foster freedom of the press under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution at the grass-roots level.

∑To celebrate the institution of the small-town newspaper.

∑To demonstrate the craft of letterpress printing.

∑To restore and preserve the Museumís historic building and antique equipment.

Rarick Long published Fredericktownís weekly newspaper, The Knox County Citizen, from 1942 to 1977 and continued to run his accompanying letterpress-printing shop until well into the 1990s, both in the building that is now the Museum.

The Museum Building

The structure, the Lyman Wright Building, was erected in 1836 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.